(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to the field of elections in which voters elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf in representative bodies in governments, business enterprises, institutions, associations, labor unions, political parties, advocacy groups, nonprofits and other groups and organizations.
More specifically, the invention is directed to interactive voter choice systems and methods facilitating voters to play more interactive roles in elections.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Although elections to representative bodies are portrayed as enabling voters to elect representatives who make decisions on their behalf once the representatives are in office, typically it is not the voters who put these representatives on the ballot as candidates to represent them. Candidates are typically placed on the ballot by nominating bodies rather than the voters. In other instances, candidates put themselves on the ballot.
Moreover, election rules and procedures typically do not comprise mechanisms enabling voters to specify in written policy agendas their preferred policy options, chosen from a comprehensive database of policy options, to serve as a guide to nominating bodies selecting the candidates or to individuals who place themselves on the ballot. Once voters are presented with a slate of candidates whose names already appear on the ballot, the lack of mechanisms to create written policy agendas from comprehensive databases of options impedes voters from providing information and instructions to candidates for office regarding the policies the voters want them to enact if they are elected.
The absence of such mechanisms also prevents voters from requesting candidates for office and elected representatives to provide them with written policy agendas comprised of policy options chosen from the same comprehensive database of options from which voters choose their preferences, which voters can then use to compare their respective agendas, evaluate candidates' platforms and hold elected representatives accountable for their performance in office.
Consequently, candidates tend to use vague language during their campaigns to describe their platforms and policy agendas. They typically cite a limited number of general policy objectives so as to avoid controversy, a practice which often hampers voters' efforts to discern what the candidate's positions are so they can decide whether they want to be represented by any of the candidates.
Likewise, elected representatives tend to use vague language to describe their policy agendas and provide their constituents little information about how they voted on specific legislation. As a result, voters often have to choose a candidate and platform from a slate of candidates that includes incumbent officeholders and first-time candidates about whom they know little. These slates of candidates and their platforms may be quite different from those the voters would prefer to see on the ballot.
Because of these practices and the lack of mechanisms available to voters and candidates to create written policy agendas, which voters can use to evaluate candidates and their platforms, there tends to be a “loose fit” between voters' policy agendas, the campaign platforms and policy agendas adopted by candidates for office and the policy agendas enacted by elected representatives once they are in office.
Research indicative of this discrepancy between voters' policy preferences and those of elected representatives in contemporary American government is provided by a recent Pew Research Center poll, which found that “Americans feel increasingly estranged from their government”. A majority of Americans (52%) say that “government is not run for the benefit of all the people”, according to a poll entitled, Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007, Section 6: Government, Trust and Political Participation, published by the Center in Washington, D. C., Mar. 22, 2007, pp. 5 and 46.